Jewish Power

I recently read The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy by Walt and Mearsheimer, which makes the case that Israel and the Jews control the world – exerting a highly-disproportionate influence in the media, foreign policy, and big business. I figured there must be another side to the story.

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

With its conspiratorial tone and flavor, The Israel Lobby comes across as an updated Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the minutes of fictional "secret meetings" in which Jewish leaders conspire to rule the world. Not surprisingly, The Israel Lobby was applauded by radical Islamic groups and racists like David Duke, who praised the authors for "validating every major point I have been making."

Protocols is complete fiction, created out of the imagination of the Russian secret police. But it served as a perfect excuse for the Russians to intensify their miserable treatment of the Jews and it gave tremendous credibility to the myth of Jews controlling governments.

The danger in such books is that not everyone is able to distinguish between fact and fiction. A friend of mine is a Jewish physicist who works for Exxon Corporation. For six months, he was working on a project with a world renowned scientist that Exxon brought in from China, and the two of them became close friends. One day over lunch, the Chinese scientist turns to the Jewish guy and says, "I never understood why you became a physicist. Why didn't you just go into business?"

The Jew says, "What do you mean, why didn't I go into business? I wanted to become a physicist. What kind of question is that?"

"Well, for me," said the Chinese guy, "there are plenty of risks in going into business, but for you it's risk-free. You have the Organization behind you."

"What organization?"

"Come on, you know, the Organization. Whenever a Jewish man gets married, the Organization gives him money to get started in business. There's no risk involved, because if the business doesn't prosper, the Organization buys out the debt and gives him more money, until he hits a business that prospers."

Here is an intelligent man, a leading scientist, who believes that all Jews get their start in business from one fantastically well-endowed, international organization.

The myth is alive and well in the 21st century.

Now I will tell you why this all doesn't make sense. If the Jews control the governments, why couldn't they get even one country to accept the refugees who were struggling to escape Europe during the Holocaust? Surely with all their wealth and political power, at least one government would have allowed the Jews in. Remember the film "Voyage of the Damned?" When government after government buries its head in the sand while Jews are being slaughtered en masse, the claim that Jews control governments becomes painfully absurd.

Another problem with this theory is that the anti-Semites never acted as if they really believed the Jews had all this wealth and power.

If you really believe someone is rich and powerful, how do you behave toward him? You treat him with kid gloves. The world may not like the Arabs, but when they had oil, the world appeased them. If the Jews are really so powerful and wealthy, why weren't they treated this way?

One nation did treat Jews that way because they really believed the propaganda. That nation was Japan. The Japanese had never known much about the Jews. But in 1919, while fighting alongside the anti-Semitic White Russians against the Communists, they were introduced to the book, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

The Japanese studied the book and, according to all accounts, believed it. How did they react? They immediately concocted a plan to encourage Jewish settlement and investment into Manchuria. They figured that people with this type of wealth and power are exactly the type of people we want to do business with! The plan was called "The Fugu Plan." Fugu is Japanese for blowfish, an exquisite delicacy that you have to cook precisely otherwise its poison will kill you. To the Japanese, the Jews were like the Fugu – you have to be extremely careful, otherwise they could destroy you with their power.

Until the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, these allies of the Nazis allowed thousands of European refugees, including the entire Mir Yeshiva, to enter Shanghai and Kobe, Japan – not because they had any great love for Jews, but simply because they believed that Jews had access to enormous resources and amazing powers of influence.

If the anti-Semites really believe that Jews are kings of the world, they would treat them accordingly. The fact that they treat Jews as outcasts proves they don't really believe that Jews are as wealthy or powerful as is claimed.